37 of the Best Prospecting Tools for 2019

26 October 2018 by
Jonathan Chan

A salesperson’s job is to feed the beast that is sales pipeline.

But, like the hunters of old, you’re going to need the right tools to bring in the right customer. Tools that’ll help you move faster, gather intelligence better, and engage prospects in a way that helps you close more deals.

That’s why we’ve compiled this epic list of the best prospecting tools out there. Arranged by each stage in the prospecting framework, along with a detail description of each tool, here is our list the best prospecting tools for the modern salesperson.

Tools to Build Your Prospect List

Building your list is the stage where you begin to determine whether a prospect is a good fit for the business, the best way to approach them, and ultimately determine whether or not there’s an opportunity for them to become a buyer.

1. Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder is designed to help you discover potential new leads and prospects by tracking which companies visit your website, even if they don’t fill out a form or contact you.

With Leadfeeder, all you have to do is connect your Google Analytics account and you’ll be able to track and analyze what pages people are visiting. This gives you opportunities to develop outreach and engagement strategies based on each lead’s behavior, as well as helping you identify prospects you might not have been aware of before.

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

As the world’s largest professional social network, LinkedIn is an obvious choice for many salespeople looking to find prospects. To accommodate for that, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a tool that allows for more advanced search filters, displays more detailed information about each prospect, as well as the ability to save and recommend leads, and InMail credit. Leadfeeder also recently launched a partnership with Sales Navigator.

3. FollowerWonk

Pricing: Free plan offered; paid plans starting at $29/month.

Rating: 4.2/5 on G2Crowd.

Twitter can be a goldmine for prospectors and using FollowerWonk you can dive deeper into Twitter’s analytics. You can use FollowerWonk to search for specific keywords in people’s bios like “Graphic Designer” for example, and it will create a list of users who identify themselves as a graphic designer along with information like where they’re located, what topics they often tweet about, and who else they follow.

From there you can tweet at them directly, or attempt to find that user’s contact information using the tools mentioned on this list.

4. Quora

Pricing: Free.

Quora is an online forum where anyone can post questions and receive answers. Thanks to their strict moderation policy, unlike similar sites like Yahoo Answers, questions and answers on Quora are usually of higher quality and provide greater insight. With Quora, you can create inbound marketing opportunities by providing insightful answers and raising your company’s profile.

But you can also find potential prospects by looking through the followers a certain question has, or who upvoted specific answers. You can reach out to these people through Quora’s internal messaging platform, or find out their contact details through their public bios or linked social media accounts.

5. AngelList

Pricing: Free.

AngelList was originally designed to be a platform for startups, VCs, and angel investors to learn more about one another. For salespeople though, it’s a directory of different companies that you can filter by organization type, the number of employees it has, and even what stage of funding they’re currently at.

6. Product Hunt

Pricing: Free.

Product Hunt is a directory of new and upcoming businesses and products. Beyond simply searching through the directory using keywords and filters, Product Hunt has recently begun expanding its platform and features. For example, they now have an “Ask” platform where, similar to Quora, users can ask and answer questions from the community. They’ve also launched a “Collections” feature, which helpfully groups businesses by specific topics such as “Email Apps,” “Marijuana Tech,” or “Back to School Apps”.

7. Capterra

Pricing: Free.

Depending on what your industry or niché is, Capterra is another goldmine for salespeople searching for prospects. Capterra contains millions of listings of different digital products and businesses which salespeople can filter through topic and category type, including ratings for Leadfeeder.

8. Clutch

Pricing: Free.

If you’re looking for a directory of all the digital agencies in the world, then you won’t find anything better than Clutch. While similar to AngelList and Capterra, Clutch differs by focusing entirely on digital agencies from marketing and advertising to mobile app development.

9. MatterMark

Pricing: 14-day free trial; paid plans starting at $49/month.

Unlike previously mentioned directories and databases, Mattermark was built entirely with salespeople in mind. You can easily search through their directory of businesses through filters such as geography, company size, industry and niche, business model, b2b/b2c, and even the amount of funds their raising.

The best feature though is that MatterMark integrates directly into Salesforce, allowing you to save businesses into specific lists. Also helping salespeople automate their prospecting by creating saved searches with over 80 different data fields, complete with company and news alerts.

10. BuiltWith

With BuiltWith, salespeople can find businesses that are using specific pieces of software or technology. This is particularly helpful when looking for competitors in your space. With BuiltWith you can find out which companies are using specific tools, and it goes a step further by also providing you with the contact details of each business.

For those who are turned off by the starting price point of $295 a month, you can always check out the free Google Chrome extension, which provides some basic insight into the tools a website is built with.

Prospecting Tools to Find Contact Details

Now that you’ve built your lists, now it’s time to get out there and start setting up those sales calls. Unfortunately, not everyone will have their contacts publicly listed which is where these following tools come in handy.

11. Voila Norbert

Pricing: Free to find up to 50 emails; paid plans starting at $49/month.

Rating: 4.9/5 on G2Crowd.

Using Voila Norbert, all you have to do is enter the name of the person you wish to contact, along with the company they work for, and it’ll automatically pull up that person’s email address. Voila Norbert also takes it a step further for prospecting salespeople with their Gmail plugin, allowing you to schedule emails, send automatic follow-up messages, and set notes or reminders.

12. Hunter

Hunter (formerly known as Email Hunter) works as a simple Google Chrome extension to find all the associated email addresses of any given domain. It’ll even give a score on how likely it is that someone will reply to that email address.

Even if you can’t find a specific prospect’s email address, Hunter supplies you with the common pattern behind all associated email addresses so you can effectively guess what your target’s contact details would be.

You’ll also be able to gather email addresses by bulk through their Google Sheets add-on which finds all emails linked with a domain and automatically copies it all to a Google Spreadsheet.

13. FindThatLead

Much like Hunter, to use FindThatLead, type in a domain name and it pulls up a list of all associated email addresses. Or, you can install the Google Chrome extension and search for email addresses directly from your browser.

14. Prospect.io

Pricing: Paid plans begin at $99/month for 1000 credits.

What sets Prospect.io apart from other email lookup tools is its ability to integrate with major CRM platforms like Salesforce and Hubspot Sales, and its unique credit system.

Much like Hunter, you can install a Google Chrome extension. However, with Propsect.io you can also use your “credits” to verify emails, create simple drip campaigns, and gain data and analytics through tracking each email.

15. MailTester

Pricing: Free.

MailTester is a super simple tool where you enter in an email address and it checks whether or not that email address actually exists. While the tool itself is limited in some regards, it is useful in helping you “guess” and verify if a prospect’s email is working or not.

16. Skrapp

Pricing: Free for up to 100 emails; paid plans starting at $49/month.

Rating: 3.5/5 on G2Crowd.

Unlike other email lookup tools, Skrapp is one of the few tools that allows you to look for email addresses associated with a LinkedIn account. Using the Google Chrome extension, you’ll be able to go onto someone’s LinkedIn profile and find the email that they used to sign up with.

Another neat function of Skrapp is the ability to save your leads directly into lists, saving you that extra bit of time.

Tools to Qualify Prospects

Qualifying a prospect achieves two things for a salesperson:

It helps them determine whether or not a prospect is worth their time, and

It helps the salesperson develop a more personalized approach.

Here are a few tools that’ll help you quickly qualify prospects.

17. Datanyze Insider

Pricing: N/A.

Rating: 4/5 on Capterra.

Datanyze contains a variety of helpful tools for salespeople, but it’s specifically their “eyeball” feature that is great for salespeople.

With Datanyze, all you have to do is go onto a prospect’s website and with one click it’ll pull up what technology and tools they’re using, the number of employees, annual revenue, and their connected social media profiles.

While their paid plans start at $600 per month, you can always check out their free Datanyze Insider Chrome Extension, which will provide basic metrics of the companies you’re visiting.

18. Mention

Pricing: Paid plans starting at $29/month.

Rating: 4.3/5 on G2Crowd.

Mention is a media-monitoring tool that searches through all major news platforms and social media sites for anytime a specific brand, or keyword, is mentioned. This is an easy way to learn what your prospect has been saying online—and what others are too.

19. Zoominfo

Pricing: N/A.

Rating: 4.2/5 on G2Crowd.

ZoomInfo is basically a giant database that provides users with all the information they need to qualify a prospect. Beyond finding a company’s general information, ZoomInfo lets you dig deeper and find out the contact details for the employees of that company.

20. DiscoverOrg

Pricing: Pricing starting at $24k+ per year.

Rating: 4.3/5 on G2Crowd.

DiscoverOrg provides users with detailed company information like their organizational chart, other companies they’re doing business with, and any recent personnel changes. What’s particularly useful is that with DiscoverOrg, you can also find out if there was any recent online activity from their end that’s related to your offering.

21. Detective by Charlie App

Pricing: N/A.

Rating: 4.6/5 on G2Crowd.

Detective by Charlie scours the internet anytime your prospect and their company has been mentioned to provide the latest news regarding your prospect. You’ll be notified of what initiatives they’re following, and who their biggest competitors are based on their information. By integrating it with Salesforce, you can find out if you have closed any deals with clients in the same niche, location, or industry as them.

22. CrystalKnows

Pricing: Free with a limited number of views per month; $29/month for unlimited access.

Crystal Knows analyzes public data and, using their unique algorithm, details for you that person’s unique personality profile. For example, you can learn the way a prospect prefers to communicate and what their behavioral tendencies are so you can better adapt your pitch and communication style. You can also install their Gmail plugin which gives you real-time suggestions about the recipient’s personality and communication style in Gmail.

23. Owler

Pricing: N/A.

Rating: 4.1/5 on G2Crowd.

Owler is free database that provides you with company information such as who their top competitors are, what their most recent acquisitions were, as well as general information such as their linked social media accounts, employee size, and annual revenue. While it does give you five free searches, you will have to sign up for a plan if you want unlimited access.

Tools for Meetings

One of the more frustrating aspects of the sales process is figuring out the right time to set up a call. This is especially difficult if you’re trying to organize a time across different time zones. Save yourself the constant back and forth by taking advantage of the following tools:

24. Calendly

Pricing: 14-day free trial; paid plans starting at $8/month.

Rating: 4.6/5 on G2Crowd.

As one of the more popular scheduling tools on the market, Calendly makes it easy for prospects to schedule calls, meetings, and demos. The tool works by first syncing up with your Google Calendar and then you can create a schedule based on what times you’re available.

From there, send a link and a prospect can pick a time that works for them. With Calendly’s Gmail plugin, you can create ad-hoc meetings and send over a clickable schedule of available times right in the email itself.

25. Doodle

Doodle is another great scheduling tool, but with a slight twist. Unlike similar tools, Doodle gives prospects the option to nominate what times work best for them. It’s then up to the organizer to pick the best option.

With their premium version, you can access Doodle’s other features such as adding in your own branding, automated reminders and messages, and the ability to create your own customized polls. This can be particularly useful if you’re trying to set up a call between multiple people.

26. ClaraLabs

Pricing: Free.

While originally built as a way to help employers manage and schedule job interviews with potential employees, ClaraLabs can also be very effective for sales teams. All you have to do is set your preferences—from your times available, to your favored meeting spots—then Clara will communicate with the prospect on your behalf to arrange a meeting time and location. You can also set up meetings between a prospect and various members of a sales team for a team-selling based approach.

Tools for Engaging Your Prospect

Once you’ve connected with a prospect, the next step is to get them engaged in a conversation. Here are some tools to help you do just that.

27. Boomerang

Pricing: 10 free credits per month; paid plans starting at $5/month.

Rating: 4.5/5 on G2Crowd.

Boomerang is a Gmail extension for email scheduling. There are many useful functions, the most obvious being the ability to schedule an email in advance to reach a prospect at their ideal time.

Boomerang also comes with a couple of other neat features to help you keep your inbox from getting too cluttered. For example, you can also set it up so that an email will automatically be sent if you don’t receive a response with a few days.

28. Rebump

Pricing: 30-day free trial; paid plans starting at $5/month.

For some prospects, you might need to follow up with them five times before they respond; for others, three will do the trick. With Rebump, you can set your own preferences for how many emails to send and the time it takes between each email. You can also track and monitor the progress of each email. All you have to do is activate Rebump within your Gmail and it’ll automatically send follow up emails for you.

29. Bananatag

Pricing: Free to use; paid plans starting at $10/month.

Another solid email scheduling tool, Bananatag integrates with all major email clients—such as Gmail, Outlook, and Android. With Bananatag, you can schedule emails as well as track if the recipient has opened your email. You can also see whether or not they’ve clicked through on your links and attachments.

30. HubSpot Sales

Pricing: Free basic plan; paid plans starting at $400/month.

Rating: 8.3/10 on TrustRadius.

HubSpot Sales is one of the most popular email management and tracking tools in the world right now. A division of Hubspot’s CRM platform, HubSpot Sales allows users to set up custom email sequences, track email open and click-through rates, and automate routine sales tasks like rotating leads. The tool can also help you find more prospects by finding out who’s visiting your website. It also gives you the option of engaging with them directly with their live chat feature.

31. Yet Another Mail Merge

Pricing: Free up to 50 emails per day; premium license starting at $24/year.

Yet Another Mail Merge is a tool that integrates with both your Gmail and Google Sheets to help you track who’s opening your emails. This is particularly useful if you’re sending out emails in bulk.

32. Close.io

Pricing: Paid plans starting at $59/month.

Rating: 4.3/5 on G2Crowd.

A powerful CRM platform in its own right, Close.io also happens to come with many powerful tools for cold calling. With Close.io, you can increase your outbound call volume with their ‘Power Dialer’ and ‘Predictive Dialing’ features.

Close.io will also track all outbound calls, giving you insights into how your outbound efforts are holding up. It also allows for easy note-taking to keep track of each individual prospect. Many Leadfeeder users also take advantage of Zapier’s integration to pull website visitor information directly into Close.io.

33. Message Ninja

Pricing: $99 for 2,000 delivered RVMs.

Message Ninja gives salespeople more flexibility when it comes to their cold-calling efforts. With Message Ninja, a sales rep can schedule when calls will automatically go out—and they’ll be able to target and choose prospects based on their location. Message Ninja’s most prominent feature is their “Ringless Voicemails” which will automatically leave a pre-recorded message for your prospect without actually calling them.

34. Ring.io

Pricing: Paid plans starting at $69/month.

Ring.io is a Salesforce integration allowing sales rep to maximize their cold-calling strategy without having to leave Salesforce itself. Salespeople can automatically track and log all calls within Salesforce in real-time and make calls to multiple people at the same time with one click. As a Salesforce integration, Ring.io gives reps the ability to build lists using filters and data within Salesforce already.

35. Skype

Skype is one of the oldest video chatting apps and is used by hundreds of thousands of professionals as their go-to tool for online conferencing. Skype enables free calls to other Skype accounts.

With paid credits, users can also make calls to regular phone numbers through the platform. Skype does not have a native feature for call recording like some of the other services in this list, although that can be overcome with third-party apps like Call Recorder for Skype at $39.95.

36. GlobalMeet

Pricing: Standard plan starting at $12/user/month.

Rating: 3.9/5 on G2Crowd.

GlobalMeet is a cloud-based online conferencing tool, meaning that users are not required to download a program to use it. All the organizer has to do is send a link to the meeting room for the recipient to join the call. GlobalMeet was built with enterprises and businesses in mind complete with many features such as their integration with Microsoft Teams.

37. UberConference

Pricing: Free for up to 10 participants with PINs required; business plans cost $15/month for up to 100 participants with no PINs required.

Rating: 4.5/5 on Capterra.

UberConference is another online conferencing tool with a focus on enterprises and businesses. UberConference can host meetings of up to a dozen people without suffering a loss in audio and video quality, and also comes with many features such as screen sharing, call recording, and even custom hold music.

Conclusion

Sales prospecting can be a big job full of repetitive tasks, but by using some of the tools above, we hope you’ll be able to increase your efficiency, connect with more prospects in less time, and close more deals than ever before.

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